By Zhao Yu
As the 15th Five-Year Plan period begins, private enterprises in Ningbo are mapping out strategies to drive innovation and growth. How these businesses evolve and what new initiatives they launch will shape the city's economic outlook in the year ahead？
Tackling Technical Challenges in New Energy Vehicles
The electric drive system is a core power component in electric vehicles. During high-speed operation, the system generates heat and expands, leading to a buildup of internal air pressure. If the pressure cannot be released in time, the housing may deform or crack. Simply adding ventilation openings would not work. Rainwater and dust can enter through the openings, while internal oil mist may leak out, potentially damaging precision components and creating environmental hazards.
Balancing pressure relief with water and oil-resistance has long posed a technical challenge for the industry. Zhang Li, general manager of Ningbo Konojia New Materials Co., Ltd., said the key lies not in the valve housing itself but in the membrane material inside it.
"The air valve is just the housing. The real performance depends on the membrane," Zhang said, noting that the real solution involves developing waterproof, breathable and oil-resistant membrane materials.
To address the issue, the company built its own simulation platform to test and refine the materials. The research and development process lasted more than a year and involved over 1,300 experiments. "There are no shortcuts in materials science. Progress requires continuous testing and improvement," Zhang said.
The oil- and water-resistant breather valve developed by the company is installed on the electric drive housing to regulate internal pressure while preventing contamination.
Last year, the company reported steady growth in both domestic and overseas markets. Domestic sales rose 20% year-on-year, while overseas orders increased 10%, strengthening its position in the specialized components segment.
Scaling Heritage Snacks Through Artisan Collaboration
Yang Lin, chairman and founder of Yong's Gourmet, recalled that his company began eight years ago as a humble five-square-meter store staffed by three people. At the time, the catering sector was already highly competitive. Yang said that excessive price-based competition can exhaust businesses and undermine employee confidence.
He believes a company's long-term development depends on clearly defining its positioning — identifying what sustains the business and what it aims to become.
Yang chose to focus on the niche segment of local snacks. In his view, many of Ningbo's traditional flavors have endured for generations because of their ingredients and craftsmanship, while also carrying strong cultural associations and emotional resonance for consumers.
"We are responding to consumers' attachment to hometown flavors and traditional culture," Yang said.
In 2021, the company launched the "10,000 Artisans Common Prosperity Plan", partnering directly with veteran cooks and inheritors of intangible cultural heritage skills. Under the program, artisans contribute their original recipes and production techniques, while the company provides branding, standardized production, packaging design and nationwide distribution. The model allows the preparation techniques of traditional foods to be scaled up for the mass market while preserving their authentic flavors.
Yang noted that while many food companies have access to capital and technology, they often lack traditional recipes and expertise. Skilled artisans, by contrast, possess techniques and formulas but may lack branding, marketing channels and operational support.
"Yong's Gourmet functions as a bridge between the two," Yang said, adding that the company works to connect artisans with market resources and provide a structured pathway for the commercialization and preservation of heritage food products.
Over the past year, the company expanded to more than 400 stores nationwide, with annual retail sales surpassing 1 billion yuan.
Going All In on AI
On the desk sits a stack of books about AI. "I plan to do a quiet retreat in Ninghai over Chinese New Year to work through these," said Chen Jianxu, chairman of Ningbo Quanmao Information Technology Co., Ltd.
The Ningbo-based company, which serves 750,000 import and export companies across China, is embracing artificial intelligence to transform how businesses reach overseas markets. At the center of this effort is BOND—Quanmao Information's independently-developed "Super Foreign Trade AI Agent".
"You just tell it what product you have and the type of clients you want to reach, and it handles the rest," Chen explained. "It finds potential buyers and even helps with establishing initial contact."
The system works by first sending out emails to gauge client interest. Once a reply is received, the AI continues the conversation via texting. Only when a client expresses a clear procurement intention is the interaction passed to a human salesperson. "The AI manages all the early-stage screening and outreach," Chen said.
BOND's efficiency comes from its ability to attract digital traffic effectively. "A growing share of search traffic now comes through AI platforms—Google, GPT, DeepSeek, Gemini, and others. If your business doesn't appear in AI-generated results, clients simply won't find you," Chen noted.
In this new landscape, traditional search engine optimization (SEO) is giving way to what Chen calls GEO—Generative Engine Optimization.
Early adopters are seeing results. Chen Jing of Changshu Bealead Automatic Machine Co., Ltd. said, "With the AI-driven system, we have connected with a large number of overseas clients we would not have reached otherwise."